Lots of Wildlife!

Ushuaia Travel Blog

Once during the night I awoke in the dark to see us lying off the lights of a town. Later, I was awakened by the sounds of a tug maneuvering us so I got up and closed the balcony door. When the alarm went off we were moored at the dock in Ushuaia. We had breakfast in the Horizon Court and I checked e-mail, then we met our tour in the Princess Theater. Booking this tour was a big mistake. There was a hell of a crowd in the theater and, though lots of people arrived before us, we ended up being among the last to board the second boat. It was jammed with about 200 people. We found seats near the bow of the lower deck but we were lucky even to get 2 together. The rain made things somewhat miserable but it did tend to keep the outside decks rather clear and I had my parka so I stayed out there most of the time.

Beagle Channel Wildlife

The boat stopped near 3 different islands, each teaming with wildlife. Here again the smell was memorable; the result of zillions of creatures on a fish diet. The wildlife was nice to see and the smell was what one should expect so no big deal but the experience was hardly worth being herded together. I think the seals jammed onto the rocks may have had more elbow room than we did! At least I got some great pictures.

It was raining quite hard by the time we got to town but we walked around anyway. We bumped into Gus and had lunch with him at a parrilla called La Estancia. After eating and buying a stuffed animal and some t-shirts at "End of the World", and some great marble and Inca rose penguins at "Piedras Argentinas", we were back on the ship about 45 minutes before the 3:30 deadline.

Beagle Channel

This time both of us took a little nap but I got up when the ship started to move and wrote as Lin dozed.

We were invited to Gus & Val's suite for cocktails so we could watch the glaciers together as we proceeded through the Beagle Channel. Initial info was that we'd get to the first glacier at about 6:20 so the invitation was for 6:15. At about 6:10 there was an announcement that we'd not be at the first glacier until about 7:20. The glaciers were pretty as always but, of course, would have been prettier if it had not been so cloudy. We went directly from there to dinner and, of course, danced in the Wheelhouse afterwards. We didn’t stay out long, though, because I had an early wakeup for what I hoped was my Antarctic trip.

We visited Ushuaia on a dismal, rainy day so it was far from beautiful. Having said that, I'm told that MOST days in Ushuaia are dismal and rainy. Because we did the Beagle Channel tour, we only had a couple of hours in town and didn't get out of town at all. I was continuously reminded of towns like Ketchikan in Alaska; the flavor was the same. Of course, it rains in Ketchikan most of the time, too! My regret here is that our tour, a poor one, prevented us from seeing much of the town.